How to Fit Solids into the Schedule

Each child is different. How does he take to the spoon? Does he spit more out than what he swallows, etc. As long as he get the cereal in him, it doesn't matter HOW. Spoon feeding does however get him ready for self feeding sooner.

Hi V.,

My son is 8 months and here is our schedule:
6am-6oz bottle
8-9 2 tbspn of cereal/rice and a jar (starge 2) of fruit with a bottle of juice/water

11-12 Stage 2 1 jar of veggie and one jar of fruit with a bottle of juice/water

3-4 a 4oz bottle if needed

4-5 if bottle not needed then we have stage 2 dinner with a bottle of juice/water

7-8 rice/ceral fruit either 1/2 jar or whole jar (it depends on how his day went) with a bottle of juice/water

8:30-9pm 6oz bottle by then my little man it tuckered out and can not keep his peepers (eyes) open

And inbetween meals, we do give him something to drink. He gets thirsty just like the rest of us. That seems to be a big help if he gets fussy and we tried everything else. That is all he wanted was a drink. We are teaching him sign language as well.

I hope this helps. When my son was about your son's age I did something like you are doing. It seems like I am giving my son a lot of food. But when he was born he did weight 9lbs 13oz. Now at 8 months he weights about 27 lbs and about 30 inches long. My husband is 6' 3 and I am 5' 9 so we are both tall.

Anyway, I hope this helps.

L.

My twins are about the same age and we've been doing cereal for about a month. We recently developed into 3 tblspn feedings (doctor recommendation) twice a day. Our schedule (if you can call it that, of course they don't always follow it!) is like this:
wake 6:30-7am
bottle & cereal 7:30-8am
nap 9am
bottle 11:30-12
nap 1pm
bottle 3:30-4
nap? 4:30 or 5 depending on afternoon nap
cereal 6ish
bottle before bed, around 7pm

Our doctor recommended adding vegetables at 7 months, fruits at 8 months and slowly decreasing cereal to be ended before 1 year old (she says they'll let us know when they're done with cereal!).

Hope this helps! It's crazy trying to figure all these things out for first time parents!

The goal for feeding solids is eventually breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but you can gradually ease into that schedule.
I have a 5 month old and we started solids with her about a month ago. She's now on a 3X/day solid schedule and it goes like this...5:30-6: nurse 8:30-9: nurse, then 3T rice or oatmeal cereal 11:30-12: nurse, then veggie mixed with 3T oatmeal 3:00: nurse 530-6: nurse, then veggie mixed with 3T rice or oatmeal 7-730: nurse then bed.

It's different for everyone depending on your baby's needs.

Good luck and feel free to message me.
C.

I found that you go with the rythmn of the child. With all of mine we went through trial and error to see what worked best for each one. Once you find the right schedule formula it will come easy and won't feel like your forcing him to eat. I know that other children's schedules also affect the baby's but that is part of the trial and error part of it. Just as long as he is getting what he needs there is no 'right' way to do it. As long as it is all spaced out for him and getting enough. Your doctor may have the amounts of foods and formula he should be getting at different months. That may be helpful to you. And what types of foods he is to have is also a great guideline. Good Luck.

My daughter is coming up on 5 months and she wakes around 9am eats cereal and nurses, nurses around 1pm, eats a vegetable and nurses around 5pm and nurses and goes to bed at 8pm She is completly satified so I am assumming I'm remembering and doing this right. (my son is only 3 1/2 and I can't remember what I did)

It sounds like you are doing a great job with the feedings. At 6 months, your ped. will probably recommend introducing vegetables first(followed by fruits). This is the time I changed their feedings to the same time I would eat at (breakfast, lunch & dinner). I breastfed my twins (so I'm not sure on bottle times). I think you are right on target! Keep up the good work, they grow up so fast!

Yeah, seriously, it sounds like you have an excellent routine going at a very young age, its great! I'm trying to think back to those days (my son is now 3) and i just remember it seemed like we were always eating/nursing! Eventually you'll get into a routine w/the solids too, just keep it consistent, notice how he changes his formula intake over time (either less at each feeding or eventually he'll drop one of those bottles) and indeed, the schedule you mentioned (starting with nursing/bottle first...followed by solids about 1 hour later) was the routine we eventually adopted as well. Fortunately, the nursing that my son seemed able to drop the easiest was the bedtime one! After eating/drinking all day, it just seemed that by 6-7pm he was totally full and ready for a good nights sleep! Awesome that I didn't have to "break" him of that bottle before bed habit as he entered his toddler years. Good luck!

Do you REALLY mean that your child goes to bed at 7:00 pm and wakes up around 6:00-6:30 am???????? That means your child is sleeping 11 hours straight?????? I was going to give you advise but...I wish you could have helped ME when my kids were that age. Whatever you are doing, keep doing it! That's fantastic!

I think the schedule of bottle before feeding more comes from mom's who nurse their baby and need to keep the milk supply constant for the baby.